Emmys Hit Another Historic Low With 27% Audience Drop From 2022: Report

The 75th Emmy Awards ceremony finally took place on Monday, January 15, after a delay of four months. The award ceremony was originally scheduled to take place on September 2023 but was postponed due to the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strike. The prestigious awards honoured American TV shows that aired between June 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023, based on a vote by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The award ceremony was hosted by comedian Anthony Anderson and produced by Jesse Collins Entertainment. It aired on Fox and was streamed on Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, and FuboTV.

This year the ceremony failed to get much views on Fox. As per data by Nielsen, Fox only managed to get 4.3 million viewers for the award ceremony as opposed to the 5.92 million for the 2022 Emmys, which aired on NBC. The figures show a 27 per cent decline in the TV viewership. The award ceremony also hit an all-time low rating among the demographic of 18 to 49-year-olds with a 0.85 rating, which was down to 22 per cent from 1.09 in 2022. Nonetheless, despite its low ratings the Emmy Awards gave Fox network its most-watched Monday night (excluding sports) since May 2022.

It is interesting to note that Emmy Awards have been losing stream when it comes to TV viewership for the past five seasons. The Emmy Awards reached more than 10 million viewership in 2018 when it had 10.2 million viewers. Back in 2000, the award show had 21.8 million viewers. It appears unlikely that the show will reach these numbers again. As per the Associated Press, the Emmy viewership was half of what the Golden Globe Awards on CBS received on January 8.

This year’s record low ratings can be attributed to two probable causes. First of all, the award show collided with the National Football League’s wild-card playoff round and the Iowa caucuses coverage. These two important events in sports and politics possibly took away a major share of Emmy Awards viewership. Additionally, the Emmy Awards were held closely after the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards. This may have caused some award show fatigue amongst the audience.

During the 75th Emmy Awards, three shows dominated the wins: The Bear, Beef, and Succession. While Succession and The Bear had six major wins each, Beef won five awards, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series.